At the last meeting of the City of Los Angeles Workforce Development Board’s Youth Council, Dr. Richard Moore and his evaluation team at California State University Northridge (CSUN) presented an evaluation of the City’s HIRE LA’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP).

In 2015, HIRE LA’s Youth met and surpassed Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti’s goal of employing 11,000 youth in summer jobs, paid work experiences and internships. The bulk of these 11,000 summer jobs were provided through the SYEP program.

The CSUN evaluation of the SYEP youth determined that:

59% are female

57% are Latino

31% are African American

56% are high school students

13% are enrolled in a community college

14% are enrolled in a four-year college

11% are out of school (did not complete high school)

The SYEP youth showed a weak labor market attachment: 77% of the youth were NOT employed in last 6 months prior to their summer jobs. Of those youth who had worked prior, 62% worked 3 months or less and had a limited knowledge of employment and labor market conditions.

A post-program survey of the youth showed participants learned valuable lessons in their summer jobs including: ability to work with coworkers and teamwork, taking responsibility, time management and meeting deadlines, office and computer skills, working with kids and children, and patience.

SYEP youth enjoyed their summer jobs – youth satisfaction level was a whopping 93.7%. The complete report is available online at ScholarWorks.csun.edu.